Roasted cauliflower soup and immunity boosters

I mentioned in my last post that my brother’s girlfriend wasn’t well. She’s starting to get better, and I kind of want to claim her recovery.

I made her super muffins (packed with antioxidants and vitamin C) and this soup, which only contains ingredients aimed at boosting the immune system. There are no sugar or dairy products in here, just hearty vegetables and delicious spices. I hate to get all informative, but I so rarely post “healthy” things that I get excited when there are actual benefits (other than deliciousness) to my recipes.

Cauliflower, the star ingredient, is packed full of vitamin C to aid your recovery. It makes up the bulk of the soup, and the gentle roasting gives it a beautiful taste. Cauliflower is also anti-inflammatory.

Sweet potato contains antioxidants, vitamin C (like cauliflower), calcium and iron. It also has plenty of vitamin D, which helps with digestion – as if it wasn’t enough that it tasted good, sweet potato actually helps you to eat it!

Garlic is antibacterial, antifungal and antiviral. My mother recounted a story recently about a friend of hers who used to stick a peeled clove of garlic in her son’s ear when he had an ear infection. And it worked. Garlic is a wonder food.

Ginger, cumin and coriander flavour the ingredients and also help to induce healthy sweating, and encourage decongestion. This sentence is probably the grossest thing I’ve put on the blog so far, but it’s a handy fact to have.

Cauliflower soup:

• 1 head cauliflower
• ¼ tsp ground cumin
• ¼ tsp ground ginger
• ½ tsp ground coriander
• 2 medium sweet potatos
• 1 medium brown onion
• 2 cloves garlic

Preheat the oven to 200°C and drizzle a roasting pan with oil. Cut your cauliflower away from the stem and chop your cauliflower florets into small pieces. Place them on your baking tray. Combine your cumin, ginger and coriander, then sprinkle over the cauliflower pieces. Pop them into the oven for 45-50 minutes, until softened. Spray with oil to prevent them from burning.

Check them at about half way and rotate.

While the cauliflower is in the oven, dice your onion, sweet potato and slice up your garlic. Put them into a pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 25 minutes.  Remove from the heat and allow to cool for 5 minutes.

Remove the cauliflower from the oven and set them to one side to cool.

Strain the liquid from the vegetables and reserve 1-2 cups of it. Place all of the ingredients in a blender, along with one cup of your liquid and whiz until pureed. Add more of the liquid until the soup achieves your desired consistency.

Serve with fresh bread and season with salt and pepper. Eat swiftly to ward off those nasty flus!

(In the spirit of Baking with Gab indulgence, I add a little knob of butter to my soup to give it a bit of creaminess.)